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RAN

RAN In this explication of this movie RAN several items will be discussed. Culturally the movie will be critiqued on how the Japanese culture is shown throughout the movie, and the structure of how the characters progress throughout the movie. The conflict between characters will also be discussed in reference to the obstacles they face and how they deal with them. This movie deals mainly with loyalty and tradition (bushido), and how a traditional Japanese family handles not only their personal problems, but also relating to their society and surroundings. The main character or focal point of the movie is Lord Hidetora Ichimonji. He has bequeathed his is kingdom and his three castles to his three sons: Taro (eldest), Jiro, and Saburo (youngest). With his bequeath he has also given up his authority in society as well as militarily to Taro. With this announcement, Taro and Jiro show great hesitation in this yet Subaro shows defiance claiming this is a foolish mistake. Because of these comments Saburo is banished. This is a good example of loyalty to elders and creates an immediate conflict among family. Kurosowa attempts to show how important loyalty can be in the face of change, and even though Subaro does not agree, having a bit of faith in elders reflects also the loyalty that this culture believes. With retirement at hand, Lord Ichimonji goes to the first castle to visit Taro. Taro shows great disloyalty to his father. Taro has had a rush of power and is now dishonoring his father with contracts to sign and so on. Within this culture, dishonoring one’s father is very humiliating, and, with no power, Hidetora leaves to the second castle to find refuge with Jiro. This conflict with Taro represents shibui in the fact that even though Taro has all this power and greatness, he has loss the love of his father all because he felt threatened by him because of his fathers respect through the land. As Hidetora makes way to seek shelter with Jiro, he finds out that Taro sent orders to Jiro to not help his father in any way and to not allow Hidetora’s men to enter the castle. Even though Jiro is crushed, he follows these orders and dishonors his father. This is the opposite of Bushido because the father has been banished by family and family is a strong bushido trait. Now with nowhere else to go Hidetora leaves the third castle and heads for the plains. Kurosowa seems to give the audience a sense of disloyalty from the two elder sons for different reasons. Even though it might not be as apparent earlier in the movie that these to sons are blinded with greed by their inheritance or by loyalty to Taro, and Taro loyal only to himself. Kurosowa sets a very strong tone on how the audience now views these individuals. Hidetora now realizes loyalty and family (bushido) is lost among his sons and begins to realize loneliness and that drives him insane “Rejected by his children…driven from his castles…with no place to go”. As fate would have it, the third son, the one he banished, comes back to save him from the desert which creates huge conflict with Jiro who is now the head of the Ichimoji tribe. This defiance by Subaro to help his father is actually a very good representation of bushido in that Subaro puts loyalty to his family first and is chivalrous to his father after his father banished him from the family in the first place. It is also very ironic that the one person Hidetora can count on was the one he humiliated and banished and the one he trusted (Taro and Jiro) ended up becoming obsessed with power and did not care what happened to their father. Kurosowa seems to point that irony out very covertly in that Kurosowa tries to show the irony of life and the unexpected obstacles that family can present. He also seems to want to put the Bushido principle to the test in the ultimate situation of Father and Son loyalty, because that is very much respected in this type of middle-age Asian culture, and Kurosowa points that out at the beginning of the movie by the respect the sons give in the field. The conflict caused by Subaro helping his father was that he created war with the Ichimonji clan. Ironically, Subaro and his men, who were thought in the beginning of the movie to be the bad guys, won the war. As Subaro leaves the war in victory with his father on the back of his saddle, he is shot. Not being able to bear the pain of the loss, Hidetora dies along side his son. In conclusion, this movie represents Bushido to a tee. It has all the traits of loyalty, which was shown by Subaro’s loyalty to his father. Tradition was also highly emphasized here, not just tradition to customs but tradition to loyalty. Taro also showed loyalty to the tradition by keeping hierarchy in check. Another point was that even though the sons where very clearly made out to be disloyal` and brutal in there ways, particularly Taro, there is no evidence of that in the beginning of the movie. That does give a nice unexpected twist to the movie, however, if Kurosowa wants the audience to understand that level of deception that he tried to portray, it might have been helpful to give a little more background or evidence of the kind of deception these sons were capable of in the beginning of the movie. The movie also shows the importance of family, but most of all it points out a definite power struggle and how power and authority can be all consuming. Shibui best describes that conflict because power and authority, even though it is sweet with all is rewards, can be bitter because it can cause someone to turn on someone they love. Bibliography: Kurosowa,Akira,RAN.CBS,1986.

Word Count: 992